Match report - 31st Jan 2015

Having beaten the wintery weather over the preceding Thursday and Friday to stage the game on Saturday, Sutton just failed to beat their powerful multinational opposition playing under the name of Peterborough RFC, who battered their way to a 22-5 lead at the break but a spirited recovery by Sutton in the second half closed the score to 24-29 with 13 minutes left to play ... and this in spite of the fact that Sutton were reduced to 14 men for the final 30 minutes of a bruising contest, when they were punished with consecutive yellow cards to a single Sutton player> The player was judged guilty of retaliation after witnessing the brutality handed out by the Peterborough players, who also received a yellow card at each incident but the yellow cards went to different players so they avoided the ultimate punishment, which fell to the unfortunate Sutton player.

Once again the selection of the Sutton team was heavily influenced by availabilities and injuries plus late withdrawals, with the ever reliable Simon Millard stepping into the second row alongside Max Heppner as a last minute replacement for the inform Adam Bennett, who had to cry off due to the illness of his grandmother. Luke Hennessy proved to be a worthy replacement for the injured Jamie Scott at hooker and with prop Chris Hanley not available, the front row once again showed changes but was solid at the corners with Harry Pendleton and Liam Hills continuing to prop up the pack. The back row saw the introduction of the excellent Sam Harris at blind side, as he relinquished his duties as 2nd team skipper to help the 1st XV and Jack Woodcock continued to impress at 8 with skipper Fraser Tait not available for a second week. In the backs, centre Jon Raistrick moved in a place to replace the injured Alex White at inside centre and winger Ian Miller moved in field into the outside centre slot vacated Raistrick. The line up was strengthened by the return of the prolific Nathan Burchell on the left wing, with Andy Tovey continuing on the right wing. The line up was completed by the return of talented scrum half Mark Rayner, resuming his new partnership with the youthful Ben Morgan, who is settling into the key playmaker role at fly half.

Sutton had their experienced player/coach Ben Toft on the bench as back replacement and his services were called upon in the final 15 minutes of the game when Ben Morgan took a knock, to be replaced at fly half by the multitalented Josh Rolls, who moved up from fullback with Ben Toft providing cover at the back and midway through the first half Marcus Harewood was called into action from the bench to replace open side flanker Luke Stewart, who limped off with an ankle injury.

Peterborough kicked off with a strong cross wind prevailing but otherwise the playing conditions were good and with a reasonably firm pitch underfoot Sutton received the ball and drove play back into the Peterborough half with powerful forward play. However the early Sutton pressure was relieved when Peterborough returned play to the Sutton half with a long penalty kick and from the ensuing scrum Peterborough ran the ball blind and fullback Adam Barnard crossed for the opening try in the right corner after 6 minutes of play to give the visitors a 5-0 lead against the run of play.

Although Sutton responded positively with hooker Luke Hennessy throwing in well at the lineout to improve this important aspect of the Sutton set play, the home side threatened a revival putting pressure on the Peterborough defence but unfortunately the revival faltered and Peterborough returned play to the Sutton half when a break in mid field set up a try for winger Vernon Horn, who stepped in off his wing and raced home under the posts leaving fly half Will Carrington with an easy conversion, which gave the visitors a 12-0 lead after 12 minutes of play.

Shaken but stirred as well, Sutton came back into the game with a superb try started by winger Nathan Burchell, who took a quick tap penalty in his own half and raced through the heart of the Peterborough defence taking play deep into the visitors half, before offloading to no8 Jack Woodcock who made ground before sending fellow flanker no6 Sam Harris racing into the right corner to bring Sutton into the game at 5-12 after 20 minutes of play.

Unfortunately after the restart the first of the flare up's started and a player from each side was yellow carded but as play resumed Sutton were caught offside in mid field and Carrington extended the visitors lead to 15-5 with 10 minutes to play to the break... but to compound Sutton's problems Peterborough drew further ahead with a smartly taken close range try by scrum half Harry Winch, who picked up from the base of the scrum and scored under the posts. Fly half Carrington added the simple conversion and the visitors took a 22-5 lead into the break.

Sutton made a good start to the second half but under pressure Peterborough resorted to their bullying tactics and another flare up erupted with a yellow card given to each side... but unfortunately the same Sutton player had been drawn into the fracas and he received a second yellow card leading directly to a red, which reduced Sutton to 14 men team for the remaining 30 minutes of the game.

Undaunted and feeling hard done by, 14 man Sutton set about the task of overhauling their formidable opponents 17 point margin and after good play their efforts were rewarded when winger Andy Tovey raced in for a try in the right corner to close the score to 10-22 but Sutton took another hit directly following the restart, when Peterborough recovered the ball and left wing Vernon Harris scored his second try to the left of the posts. Fly half Carrington added the conversion to restore a 19 point margin at 29-10 with 24 minutes to play.

Again Sutton showed their true character and spirit, as against the odds they took the game to Peterborough and applied sustained pressure in their opponents 22. Again their enterprise was rewarded when the ball popped out and was snapped up by wily wing Nathan Burchell, who had drifted in field off his wing looking for work and ball in hand he weaved his way over by the posts for Sutton's third try, which was converted by fly half Ben Morgan for 17-29 midway through the second half.

On a roll an inspired Sutton again drove play deep into the Peterborough 22 with a well struck penalty and securing the ball at the ensuing lineout Sutton drove powerfully for the try line driving hard against the bulk of their opponents. As the progress slowed the ball was swung into mid field and Josh Rolls now in the fly half role after injury to Ben Morgan, swept through a gap to score by the posts. Having scored a bonus point fourth try, the enterprising Josh Rolls converted his own try to bring Sutton to within 5 points at 29-24 with 13 minutes to play.

But in the closing minutes Sutton suffered further injury when defending a scrum on their try line they were judged to have deliberately wheeled the scrum and/or played the ball before it was out of the scrum and a penalty try was awarded against them.

The conversion gave Peterborough a 36-24 winning margin against a valiant Sutton side, who stay 10th, 2 places above the relegation zone, whilst the victory moves Peterborough up from 4th to 2nd at the top of the league table.

This weekend Sutton travel to old rivals Dudley Kingswinsford looking for more league points to strengthen their league position. KO 2.15